15/3/03 Afternoon @ work

Been a very busy couple of days but also kinda productive. Thursday had the Planning Summit with the Boy. We went and sat in Glebe Park, enjoyed the sunshine and sorted out everything I/we need to do over the next couple of weeks. This is the downside of doing experiments that run for nearly six weeks - you need to do lots of advance planning. The good things from all of this is that we have planned in going down the Coast for two days. I'm so looking forward to it. Will be the first time that Boy and I have gone away on a holiday together :) Time out from life in Canberra will be good for both of us.

There was the most incredible thunderstorm here yesterday. I wish I had had a camera on me but I doubt it would have done justice to some of the things we saw. Driving along the top of the lake and looking ahead to see the cenotaph silhoueted against a slate grey sky and cockatoos careening wildly above us, being completely blinded by sheets of falling water and then having lighting streak right in front of us and then driving out the other side of the storm to brilliant sunlight and a mob of kangaroos foraging on the side of the road. And people wonder why I love Canberra.

Now of course its back to the humdrum of work and on a beautiful Saturday afternoon as well. Better get to all that harvesting.

12/3/03 Bloody early (at least for me) @ The Boy's house

Not sure what the hell I am doing awake at the moment. I have been bright eyed and bushytailed since 7am and that is just wrong. How can I call myself a slackass PhD student if I am awake at that hour? Finally gave up on trying to sleep since it was only disturbing the Boy and decided to have a cup of tea. Mmmmmm caffiene.

The last couple of days have been really strange, at least in relation to work. Monday I felt really unwell and went home and slept for about 12 hours. Pretty much only go the absolute essentials done (plant harvesting) and that was it. Then yesterday got into work feeling completely unmotivated but by the end of the night I had acctually accomplished quite a bit. I procrastinated all day, playing on the internet, going to the bookshop, ringing people etc etc and then bam! 5pm and the motivation hits. I ended up working until 10pm when the Boy finished his shift. Harvested all of my plants and also did sections and photos of two other plants. Got some beautiful sections, but by about 9:30pm I was getting a bit tired and the sections got a little sloppy. Still will have some pretty pictures that could end up in the thesis yet.

I have been really struggling with my PhD recently. My old supervisor DB warned me about the first year blues and I think that is what I have got. There seems to be no point to what I am doing and my experiments are a complete waste of time and who the hell cares about cellulose synthesis anyway? Have been terribly unmotivated and only managing to do the bare minimum of work. I just keep plodding along hoping that if I look hard enough I will find my motivation again. Maybe I have now. Yesterday was the best day at work for weeks. I'm hoping today will be good as well.